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Benju Sharma
Background Born on 10 December 1947 in Dillibazar, Kathmandu, Nepal, Benju Sharma is the eldest child of the famous writer and poet Bhimnidhi Tiwari. Sharma possesses a Master's in Nepali literature and a PhD in Ancient Nepalese History, Culture and Archeology. Sharma started writing poems from young due to her father's influence. Writers had often visited her home, creating a literary atmosphere in which developed Sharma's interest in writing. All of these helped to groom Sharma to be a "persistent devotee of literature, especially poetry". Motivation for Writing When young, Sharma was inspired by the creativity in the literary atmosphere. Her devotion to literature since then, has spurred her to act. Sharma said: "I write to protect and safeguard human values, peace and liberty as well as to inspire love. I write when I see human rights violated, love smashed and values trampled underfoot. My poems aspire for a society free of all forms of domination, equipped with democratic rights and ideal human values. When these essential qualities for civilized living are undermined and attacked, my pen feels a shock and is suddenly awakened to rectify those wrongs." Significance of Works Although Sharma was born into a middle-class family, her works clearly reveal that she is not unaware of her privileges. Her background is said to have contributed in heightening her awareness of discrimination against women embedded in the culture. Sharma has published three collections of poems, and most of it severely criticises the Nepalese society. They illustrate the anomalies, moral degradation, heartlessness, cruelty, absence of human values and deception in intimate relations in present-day Nepalese society and voices her indictment of a society that privileges half the population on the basis of gender, tailoring the male on the basis of self-conceit and the female on the basis of subservience to others. Core themes in poems The two poems by Benju Sharma featured in this wikia are "This Moment I Am Thinking" and "War With Fire". "When I Am Thinking" evokes the complicated and chaotic social, economic and political situation and its impact on women, whereas "War With Fire" has a strong, affective female speaker who voices out her indignation of her treatment by the nation. The key themes in these poems are clearly reflective of the plight of Nepalese women. ::: Gender Inequality & Discrimination ::: Gender inequality and discrimination resonates throughout the two poems. In "War with fire", the female speaker assumes a passive role, in a position where she is often hurt by the invisible active doer: 'I, hurled into the furnace.../ In grappling with the fire I was fiercely scorched I was scorched by old beliefs I was scorched by superstition I was scorched by religion I was scorched by legislation I was scorched by integral rituals' ("War with Fire") ::: The female speaker extends her plight to other women. They are silenced by the dominant sex over 'generations': Yet so many were consumed unto ash; so many died without existence For generations we've perished grappling with fire we've become the essence of ash ("War with Fire") :: In "This Moment I Am Thinking", the woman can only 'think', and is unable to help herself out of her situation, since, being born a woman, she is rendered powerless. Thus, the speaker can only beg 'for a lock / without a key', choosing to shut herself out of every concern she has, and of man. :: Women's Subservience :: Women are characterised as limited, indifferent and subservience to male and family concerns in "This Moment I Am Thinking": ::::::::: 'all day with palms bowed in greeting, I think of competing in the marathon of serving and flattery' :: Although "War with Fire" transforms the oppression of women, stemming fom male dominance, into a cause for indictment and power, female subservience remains: ::::::::: 'Our tenderness and vulnerability :::::::::allows even our own father to dominate us' :::::::::::::::: ("War With Fire") :: 'Revolt ' :: Revolt is a significant theme in Sharma's works, especially in "War With Fire". The title itself is metaphorical, as if proclaiming war against the fire which represents all the societal, economical and political laws that oppresses the Nepalese woman. The tone of the poem is that of rage and vengence, and the women are resolute in overthrowing the powers that oppress them: :::::::::: 'Did you mistake complacency and forbearance :::::::::: for weakness and convalescence? :::::::::: Did you take it as my sexless bearing, my cowardliness? :::::::::: ... :::::::::: My barbecued flesh toughened :::::::::: Vitality grew itself inside the bone :::::::::: My ego inside the marrow :::::::::: blazed into unstoppable fire :::::::::: .... :::::::::: But now the power of resistance :::::::::: has grown inside us :::::::::: expelling the fire through our mouths :::::::::: we have become Mahakali :::::::::: waging war with fire- :::::::::: fire has been defeated!' ::::::::::::::::: ("War With Fire")